Tuesday, August 26, 2008

I'm sorry, but it's time. Lost in the Twins miracle season thus far has been the idiocy of Gardenhire. Looked past due to a much better than expected season, it's breaking out in full force lately.

Last night, with the Twins leading 2-1 and runners on first and third and nobody out with Nathan pitching, he had the middle infielders play back at double play depth. With a one run lead. And a runner on third. The tying run. Like, if that guy on third scores you don't win the game. I can't find a quote from Gardy on what he was thinking having them play back, apparently he's reached such status that you can't ask those questions, but it is one of two things:

1. He forgot what was going on2. He was concerned about letting the guy on first get into scoring position.

I'm guessing it was #2, although #1 is certainly possible. Here's the thing - if you can stop them from tying the game, you don't have to worry about them winning. With the Twins bullpen in the state that it is, an extra-inning game is almost certainly going to go the Mariners way, particularly with the two good relievers, Guardado (more on him later) and Nathan already used up. Not to mention the old maxim "Play for the win on the road, the tie at home."

This was a seriously inexcusable mistake in judgement that I would have expected most D-League softball teams to get right.

Need more? How about yanking Kevin Slowey after just 91 pitches on Sunday? He was cruising along into the 8th, and gave up a couple of hits with one out. In trots Dennys Reyes to face Figgins, giving up a groundout and a run. More damaging was the fact that this turned the game over to the bullpen, and sure enough, Jesse Crain came in and blew the game after getting knocked around in the 8th - an inning Slowey very likely could have still pitched. But wait, wasn't it genius to make Figgins turn around and hit righty? No. He's a virtually identical hitter from either side (OPS of .709 vs. .692). The next batter was another switch hitter, Erick Aybar, who is actually better against lefties. Just another small game management mistake to add to the pile. Not as horrible as the previous one, but then again, what could be?

And who can forget the staggering amount of times he gets kicked out of games, usually in embarrassing fashion. Remember the hat kick thing? I've never been so embarrassed to be a Twins fan.

So let's cut him loose already. He has little-to-nothing to do with the team's success this year, which is based mostly on timely hitting (a .313 BA with RISP is extremely fortunate) and the development of the young pitchers, which has a whole hell of a lot more to do with Rick Anderson and the minor league coaches than that idiot.

I'm now too riled up to actually write about Eddie, so I'll just say it's a good move to at least try but don't expect miracles all of a sudden. For more, just read Aaron Gleeman's take. I can't even think about the Twins right now. God I hate that idiot redneck.

18 comments:

Dawg
said...

Its hilarious that you completly discount Gardy's role in the teams unfathomable success this year. Its criminal that you call for his removal. Your Gardy rant reminds me on another angry fat local columnist.

Gardy had the corner infielders in and the middle infielders at double play depth which worked to perfection. The plan was probably for Nathan to strike that guy out but his back up plan was a double play to ensure you live to fight another day. Go for the win on the road is a football term loser and doesn't apply to baseball. Had Nicky been playing in, that ball would have been in center field and it would have been a tie game with the winning run at 2nd and no outs.Instead it was a tie game, 2 outs and nobody on. No wonder your softball team has a winning percentage similiar to the Royals over the last 5 years.

The Twins didn't hit last night and only a mouth breathing sheep f#cker would blame that loss on Gardy instead of the Twins pathetic hitting which was probably Gardy's fault as well according.

I'd rather be compared to fat pat than agree with anything Dawger says, Snake/Tiffany.

Gardy may very well be an excellent manager in terms of relating to his players and managing egos and what not, I don't know. I also don't know how much that stuff matter, you'll find differing opinions out there, so perhaps he has had some role in the teams' success this year.

However, the fact that you defend his decision to keep the middle infield back in that situation just shows your lack of understanding of baseball. Worked to perfection? They tied the game up. That's a pretty shitty plan.

And as far as going for the win on the road being a football saying you couldn't be further from the truth. In football, home or away, it's basically the same thing. In baseball, it's the difference between batting first or last in an inning. That's where the saying comes from.

I was hoping you would come back, but now I think maybe you should go away again.

For starters maybe you shouldn't have sent out that pathetic emailing begging me and Tiff to start posting again.

You always take outs in baseball. When your ace closer and clutzy short stop put you in that big of a bind then you have to make the best of the situation. The decision to play for a double play and hope for a strike out or pop out was an excellent managerial decision. A drawn-in infield is a desperation defensive allignment with a very low percentage of producing the out at home.

Bottom line is we should have blown the doors off of the lowly Mariners and WWWWW is probably a gay.

I wonder who has a better odds of winning, the team with the lead in the bottom of the ninth or the team that is tied in the bottom of the ninth?

If the infield had been playing in, each remaining event throughout the remainder of the game would have played itself out differently. So to say that "had Nicky been playing in, the ball would have been in center field" is just a completely juvenile response.

It's safe to say that Gardy is probably good at keeping the boys loose and all of that other silly meaningless shit that sports writers and their loyal readers fawn over. When it comes to strategy or anything outside of his baseball cliche riddled mind, he his no more apt to make a better decision than anyone else in baseball. Talent wins baseball games, not managers. Ray Miller would have the same results with this team.

Gardy drives me crazy, but have you looked at the dumb shit other managers do? Just flat-out ignorant crap, like batting Jose Vidro in the cleanup spot--two managers were dumb enough to do this for the Mariners. WTF? Managing a baseball game has become a dumb cover-your-ass group think exercise that something like LaRussa batting his pitcher 8th is considered innovative.

Anonymous - It figures you wouldn't want to put a name behind that thoughtless garbage. Ray Miller barely scrathced out 70 wins with Puckett, Viola, Bruno, Hrbek, Gaetti and Bush. You are too dumb to live.

WWWW- What should Gardy do? Bench people that slide head first into first? I'm sure last nights loss was on Gardy also.

Sidler - Ruiz's feet first slide into first was great. What the F was he thinking?

I don't think you can underestimate the value of a manager who motivates the players to play hard every day, do things for the good of the team, etc. With all the me-first babies out there in pro sports it seems pretty important. And it seems Gardy is excellent at that. Although it could just have to do with the makeup of the players themselves.

That said, Gardy is a terrible strategic manager. I don't even want to get started.

It was so thoughtless that the only thing you could be critical of was a silly throw away line after the meat and potatoes of the post. You got me.

Viola really helped out the Twins in 86 with his 4.51 ERA. Let me guess, he would say to himself, "Self, you have a 2.90 and a 2.64 in your arm, but you hate Miller so much that you're going to screw over your teammates and wait to unleash it when you and the boys finally get your new skipper." I'm sure that was what made Miller an ass and Kelly a genius.

As far as sliding into first, he should have nipped it in the bud the first time it happened. The first time Punto did it, he should have been pulled to the side and told "we don't do that here, the only time sliding into first is acceptable is to avoid a tag, so don't do it any more. It actually slows you down." Which is actually something that should have been covered in spring training, but the boys were busy "staying loose," playing grab-ass and watching naked guy do naked push-ups and jumping jacks.The next time he did it, Gardy should have called him out in front of everybody, "This isn't 4th Fucking Grade, stop sliding into first Fucking base, it slows you down! It's only acceptable when avoiding a tag, so stop Fucking doing it! The next time one of you Motherfuckers slides into first I'm going to put you on the bench or worse, you may be looking for a new job. Look guys, I'm a pretty easy going loosey-goosey kinda guy, but that is just something that isn't baseball smart, so I can't condone it."

Oh boy, that would have been tough. Now we have to watch them slide into first multiple times, every night.

As far as the team guy vs. selfish guy goes, you're either a team guy or your not. It has more to do with the way you were raised than what "Skip" preaches. The fact is that this team's best players are a bunch of white boys, probably raised in middle-class America/Canada. Yes, they're selfish in the fact that they want big contracts, but they don't put money ahead of everything. They aren't worried about turning their names into brands, that's basketball players and football players. Take a look at this team's biggest headache, captain selfish. Let's compare his upbringing with the rest of the boys.

I take it back. You aren't too dumb to live based on your funny improv Gardy rant and reference to Naked Guy. Don't compare that terd Miller to Gardy anymore and we are square.

"Talent wins ball games not managers."

Well Gardy's career managing record is 597-485. This has been accomplished with sub-par talent. I'm not giving Gardy all the credit for a well run organization but the Twins are successful and competitive year in and year out throughout Gardy's tenure as Manager.

Don't be ignorant and try to chalk up the Twins success over a long period of time as luck or a fluke. WWWWW and Sidler and other Sabermetricians predicted the Twins to have a below .500 year. Based on the talent this team has that should have been accurate. However they didn't figure in Gardy's genius when making their preseason predicitions. Hopefully they won't underestimate Gardy's undeniable managerial talent again.